HYUNDAI’S SUV A SPACE OD­DITY

Sure, they are the new cool tool but most of them are just hatch­backs with chunkier body­work, a bit of ex­tra ground clear­ance and plas­tic trim to en­cour­age delu­sions of rugged­ness and off-road abil­ity.

Oh, there’s one ex­tra fea­ture they whack on the com­pact SUV mu­tant, too. A higher price. OK, but you’re also get­ting more car for your money, right?

Wrong. In some cases, you’re ac­tu­ally get­ting less.

An i30 hatch given the com­pact SUV treat­ment, Hyundai’s base model Kona Ac­tive is $27,000 drive­away. You get a 2.0-litre petrol four with 110kW of power and 180Nm of torque, matched to a sixspeed au­to­matic and front-wheel drive.

The i30 Ac­tive hatch has a more powerful ver­sion, with 120kW/203Nm. Of­fi­cially, it’s $23,250 plus on-roads but the small hatch­back class is so com­pet­i­tive now that no­body pays full re­tail for any­thing.

Ah, but Kona is an SUV, so it’s more spa­cious and prac­ti­cal. No, it isn’t. Kona has 361L of boot vol­ume with all seats in use and 1143L with the rear seat backs folded for­ward. The i30’s equiv­a­lent num­bers are 395L and 1301L.

If you plan to go off-road, the Kona’s ex­tra 30mm of ground

clear­ance will be use­ful. If you don’t, it’s ir­rel­e­vant. I’m not try­ing to talk you out of the Kona.

It’s a re­spectable gad­get and it’s your money.

But if you’re look­ing at a com­pact SUV such as this one, a Subaru XV or a Mazda CX-3, check the hatch that spawned it.